Any trip to the local feed store and you will many different types to feed your animals: meal, pellet, block, or textured. With many different choices deciding what the “best” feed is depends on many different factors. What type of livestock are you feeding? Will there be more than one species of animal being fed? The production goals of those animals? The equipment you have available? What is the topography of the pasture? In truth any of those forms can work for you. You may even know people who use the different types, and each type has it’s pros and cons.
Tag: cattle (Page 4 of 4)
As we approach summertime it is a good idea to revisit your ranch’s marketing plan. Every operation should develop and maintain a marketing plan for their animals. Think of it as a blueprint to build a house that is a profitable ranch. Course with markets always fluctuating your plan needs to be flexible and easily updated to any changes. Here are 5 questions to consider when developing your plan:
A common occurrence during the first part of spring is when the grass starts turning green ranchers turn the cows out. This time of year should be approached with caution because early spring grass could be limited on growth or volume. When it is like that your cows can use more protein and energy than they’ll take in.
When it comes to your cow’s nutritional needs protein, energy, and minerals are usually first on the list. However ruminants also need roughage in their diets as well. A minimum level of roughage is necessary in order to keep their rumen working like it should.
Mineral deficiencies among pasture forages is a widespread problem across the whole country. Beef cattle require a number of dietary minerals for body maintenance, growth and reproduction.
A national study done by Utah’s State Diagnostic Lab has found that 53% to 70% of cattle were short on important dietary minerals.
They also found that there was a need to supplement in every state. So how do you know if you need to supplement, here are some things to consider:
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Though minerals take up a small portion of a cow’s overall diet they control many vital functions and can impact everything. A complete mineral should contain the proper balance of all 14 essential cattle minerals.
Cattle reproduction and nervous system function as well as feed efficiency and overall herd health can be impacted.
When developing a solid mineral plan there are 3 factors to consider.
Let’s say there was a way that you could make money come out of the ground, would you be interested? Of course you would be interested.
And what if it could reduce or even eliminate your cattle’s down time, would that be something you would be interested in? Well using the right kind of supplement program will do both for you.
Using the right kind of supplement program could do that and so much more. The right kind of supplement program will correctly fill in the nutrition gaps from your forages which will lead to healthier cattle.
But how do you know if the supplement program you are using is the right one for your operation? To determine what program is right for you there are some things to consider.
Calving season is one of the busiest times of year for a cattle producer. It is when all the work that you have put in throughout the year will begin to pay off. Many producers have already started with their calving season with others starting theirs soon.
What happens during this time can have an impact on the number of live healthy calves that you will have. Also getting your calves on a good start can play a part on their lifetime performance. Since this is where the cow/calf producers makes his living it is best to do this right.
With the busyness there are many things that can go wrong. It is always a good idea to have a plan in place in order to make the season run smoothly with less headaches. The last thing that you want is to be caught off guard by nasty winter weather and have to be scrambling for supplies.